As you might
expect from a good scottish pub, there is a wide variety of Scotch
whiskey on the shelves behind the bar at the Dunvegan Hotel. But
on the top row, down the line from the bottles in a section labeled
"Very Fine," the keen observer will notice two small urns
that share space with the single malts.
They contain
the remains of "sleepy" from Tallahasee and Tim from Chicago.
Avid golfers in life, those gentlemen requested that in death their
ashes be spread over the Old Course.
Ashes to ashes is one thing, dust to dust is quite another. The
Dunvegan it seems, was as much a part of Sleepy's and Tim's St.Andrews
experience as the Swilcan Bridge. So they also specified that their
final resting place be a spot where they could eternally eavesdrop
on the post-round banter at their favorite 19th hole.
Sheena and Jack Willoughby, proprietors of the Dunvegan, obliged
without question.
"That's what this place means to people," says Sheena.
She and her husband can relate. When they bought the Dunvegan nearly
nine years ago, they acted on a golf fantasy of their own. In the
Dunvegan, they've created a unique home-away-from-home for American
visitors to the cradle of golf.
Figuring out how to appeal to Yanks was the easy part. Jack Willoughby,
52, was born on the Fourth of July in - no kidding - Liberty, Texas.
After graduating from Texas A&M University, he did what many
Aggies do. He found a job in the oil business.
He worked his way up the sales ladder to an executive position with
Houston drilling equipment manufacturer Vetco Gray. In 1981, Vetco
transferred him to the company's new plant in Aberdeen, Scotland,
where he spent the better part of 12 years, sandwiched around a
brief stint in Nigeria.
It was in Aberdeen that he met Sheena Gibb, a sprightly Scottish
blonde from Forfar. She was executive assistant to the company president.
Both were divorced - Jack's 21-year-old twin daughters live in Texas
and California. Jack and Sheena started dating in the early '90s.
Their relationship turned serious after he returned from Nigeria
and the couple began spending long weekends in St.Andrews.
Jack had never played golf before he was assigned to Scotland. "We
were raised on football and baseball, those macho sports,"
he says.
But it wasn't long before he was smitten by the game. Now he plays
off an 8 handicap. Despite growing up near Carnoustie, Sheena -
who is nine years younger than Jack - also was a nongolfer. She
took it up when Jack began taking her on his St.Andrews junkets.
She now plays of 12.
With each successive visit to St.Andrews, Sheena and Jack thought
more and more about living there. They were especially intrigued
by the possibilities they saw in an establishment they frequented
after golf, the Dunvegan.
"This place was owned by a nongolfer," says Jack. "He
was running it as a pub. He was an older gentleman who let his two
sons run it. They weren't very interested in the business, and the
place was in really bad shape. It's hard to believe that happening
in this location."
That being the corner of Pilmour Place, about 112 yards from the
Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St.Andrews clubhouse and the first
tee of the Old Course.
"We always kind of fantasized about doing this," says
Jack, "because of where it was."
During one visit in 1992, the couple was having lunch with the Dunvegan's
owner and Jack suggested, only half-joking, "If you ever want
to sell, call me."
Six months later, to their surprise, that call arrived. Jack put
together a business plan and started inquiring about financing.
Lacking experience in hospitality, he knew it would be a tough sell.
"My argument was, I'd been a customer at these type of establishments
for a long time," Jack says. "I know what they're looking
for."
The bankers weren't impressed. One after another, they rejected
his loan application. But Jack Willoughby is nothing if not a salesman,
and after several months his persistance was rewarded.
"We finally got the financing arranged, and all of a sudden
the ball was in our court," says Jack. But did they really
want to quit their jobs, buy a run-down hotel, move to a strange
town and start over as partners in business as well as life?
"We sat on the fence for two weeks, trying to talk ourselves
out of it," Jack recalls. "But we decided if we didn't
go ahead and do it, we'd regret it forever."
Jack quit his job in Aberdeen where he was vice president of operations.
He has never looked back.
"That gets old, the company politics and everything,"
he says. "Some people thrive on that. I had had it."
The Dunvegan deal closed in St.Andrews on a chilly day in January
1994.
"We signed the papers and (the seller) gave me the keys,"
says Jack. "Then he left and I had to go over and pour a pint
for my first customer."
Jack won't reveal how much he paid for the Dunvegan, but he can't
disguise his pride in some shrewd deal-making. "Let's just
say it's hard to believe a piece of property like this, at this
location, would be available to a working man in 1993," he
says.
Nevertheless, Jack reckons the cost of upgrades have since matched
the purchase price. As their first decade of ownership draws to
a close, the Dunvegan is little more than a break-even proposition
for the Willoughbys. And that's only a recent development.
What the couple had purchased was a 190-year old, three story greystone
with a checkered past. During World War II it had been owned by
the British government, which used it to house pilots from nearby
Leuchars Royal Air Force base. In the 1970's and 80's, it was a
hardscrabble pub, with appartments above, favored by caddies and
St.Andrews University students.
Jack soon discovered that the Dunvegan was in worse shape than he
thought.
"We basically had to gut the interior of the building,"
he says.
Among the priorities was the renovations of three second-floor guest
rooms.
"Installing comfortable beds and good showers was the first
order of business," Jack says.
They also recognized that they needed something to "kick-start"
their food service, so they lured chef Mike Farqueson from a competitor,
giving him 5 percent of the business.
Sheena continued to work in Aberdeen for another nine months, commuting
to help Jack on weekends until they were married in September 1994.
Meanwhile Jack had his hands full. In the best of times, Dunvegan
patrons had been rough around the edges. When word of a change of
ownership got around, it got rougher. "All people who had been
banned came back," Jack says. "We had fights in the bar.
We had staff problems."
That wasn't part of the business plan.
"We had to shift the clientele from the local drinking class
and students, to a golfing clientele," Jack says.
One evening, Jack stumbled on an effective tactic. Around 10 p.m.,
the place had begun filling with St.Andrews University students,
plus an assortment of the usual suspects. "They were playing
new-wave, punk music (on the jukebox)," Jack recalls. "I
put on some country and western, and the place cleared out in about
10 minutes."
Which wasn't exactly the business plan, either. It wasn't long,
though, before the Dunvegan started filling up with golfers. "People
in the other establishments kind of do their own thing," says
Bob Miller, owner of Auchterlonies Golf Shop, across Golf Place
from the Dunvegan. "Jack had a clear idea of the clientele
he was trying to attract. No one else in the town caters so much
to the golfer."
"We did feel like we could differentiate ourselves by our level
of service," says Jack. "We realized most of our customers
would be Americans." The Dunvegan's reputation reeived a big
boost in 1994 when Tom Kite, Curtis Strange, Steve Elkington and
Fred Couples came in for dinner.
"Tom in particular really word-of-mouthed our food quality."
says Jack.
On any given afternoon or evening at the Dunvegan, you never know
whom you might see. The walls of the pub and the dining room are
covered with photos of famous golfer patrons, professional and otherwise.
Sheena with Tiger Woods. Sheena with Nick Price. Sheena with John
Daly. Sheena with Ernie Els. Sheena with Clint Eastwood. Sheena
with Sean Connery. Sheena with Wayne Gretzky. Jack (clad in Texas
A&M sweatshirt) with President Bush I.
"This is the best golfy place in St.Andrews," says Dunvegan
regular Gordon Smith, a 13-year old caddie at the Old Course.
"The transformation of this place is second to none,"
says Smith, recalling the days when customers' feet would "squish
in the beer" on the linoleum floors. "They've actually
put this place on the map."
The Dunvegan draws a comfortable mix of local and visiting golfers.
Ever-present Old Course caddies add to the charm. "Part of
the experience of St.Andrews is walking down the 18th with your
caddie, then having a pint with him afterwards and having a few
laughs about the round," says Jack.
Jack agrees, but cautions: "The last thing we want to do is
Americanize the place (A concern to the neighbours when the Dunvegan
changed hands). I kind of felt there was a little cloud. It's fair
to say it took a while to be accepted. But that's normal for any
small town. It took three or four years before I really felt welcome
as part of the community."
Sheena attributes the early chill to the fact that the couple was
working so much, they rarely had time to play golf or socialize.
"People were wary of you a little bit," she says. "But
once they get to know you, they found out, hey, this isn't such
a bad guy."
Says Smith, the caddie: "Jack's so laid back, he's asleep.
But he's a really nice bloke, a gentleman to the end."
Old Course caddie David Thom, who drives a cab in San Fransisco
during the slow season, recalls when Jack and other oil men came
down from Aberdeen to play golf. "The caddie fee was eight
quid; they'd pay 30," he says wistfully.
"Jack's really fit in well, for a guy who grew up in Texas."
Dunvegan regulars will tell you Jack can be a soft touch, which
means Sheena sometimes has to assume the role of the heavy. "She
can be tough, and she isn't very well liked by some of the boys,"
says one caddie, who for obvious reasons begged anonymity. That's
of little concern to Sheena. She has a business to run, and her
priority is catering to hotel guests and dinner customers.
"I tend to look after the wait side of the business,"
Sheena says of the division of labor. "I handle the food service
and I do most of the general administration."
Jack is the "morning person" who deals with vendors and
early risers. The Dunvegan offers a breakfast special for caddies:
Coffee and bacon roll for a pound. "I'm the back room guy;
she's out front, making sure the customers are happy," says
Jack.
If someone does have a problem, it's easy to find the managers.
The Willoughby's live in the Dunvegan attic flat, which consists
of a bedroom, office and living room. They dine in the hotel kitchen.
"Oh, we have a penthouse," Sheena says rolling her eyes.
That's one of
the trade-offs," says Jack. "I like it, but Sheena would
like to move."
"No I wouldn't," she protests. "I know that's an
impossibility. I've accepted that. I got over that a long time ago."
Indeed, life is a series of trade-offs. As for their lifestyle,
the Willoughby's believ the plusses far outway the minuses. "Because
our business is hands-on and up close and personal, that makes it
fun for us, too," Sheena says.
They relish the little day-to-day challenges, and savor small pleasures
like seeing the glow on guests' faces when they tee off on the Old
Course for the first time.
"We very much feel like we're in the golf business, rather
than the hotel business." says Jack
It's a business they can't see themselves giving up anytime soon.
"I have to say this is home," says Jack, who tries to
visit the States twice a year. (He and Sheena are out-of-town members
at Champions Golf Club in Houston.) "Even if someone made me
a crazy offer and we sold, we'd still stay in St.Andrews."
Why not? He and his life are living every golfer's fantasy.
"I've probably played the Old Course 500 times," says
Jack. "I never get tired of that. It's a special, special place.
We wouldn't have done this anywhere else in the world. If I were
serving pints to guys who arn't golfers, I couldn't handle it. We
wouldn't have anything to talk about."
Sheena agrees, but adds that timing was everything. They were fortunate
to buy a hotel in the heart of the home of golf, at the cusp of
the Tiger Woods era. "If we had done this 10 years previous,
I don't think it would have turned out like this," she says.
Lucky for Sleepy
and Tim that it did.
|
